Tri-Nations
'All Blacks a work in progress'
2009-07-21 12:08
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Centurion - Assistant coach Wayne Smith said on Tuesday that the All Blacks were still a work in progress before the Tri-Nations test against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
New Zealand opened their defence of their Tri-Nations title by beating Australia 22-16 in Auckland last weekend, recovering from a 13-3 deficit, Smith saying this showed that the All Blacks were heading in the right direction.
"It was certainly a good performance and special in terms of the heart, character and never-say-die spirit we showed. It was a step down the path, it showed we're on the right track," Smith told reporters in Centurion on Tuesday.
"But there's no magic wand when it comes to developing players, you've just got to put in the hard work. We've got a way to go before we get to the quality of play we want and the margins are small at this level, consistency of performance is the challenge."
Smith said the All Blacks had used a kicking-based game against the Wallabies to try and pin them in their own territory, but that did not necessarily mean they would use the same tactics against the Springboks.
"We chose to try and put pressure on the Wallabies through a kicking game, we simplified the game plan in order to win, but that was our choice then and there's nothing in the laws saying you have to kick," he said.
The All Blacks arrived in South Africa on Sunday evening and will have their first serious training session on Wednesday. Smith said much of the groundwork for Saturday's test had been done during the build-up to the match against Australia.
"We don't have a lot of options, so we just have to do the best we can. We'll take a lot of stuff forward from last week and we just trust that the players will recall it. We don't want to err by over-cooking the players," Smith said.
The former All Black flyhalf confirmed that there were no injury concerns in the camp.